The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated that, by December 2002, all cellular telephone carriers must market handsets capable of providing an emergency locator service. This emergency locator service, known as E911, will enable personnel at the public safety answering point (PSAP) to pinpoint the location of a cellular telephone user dialing 911. This FCC mandate further requires that the user not be able to override the emergency locator service in the case of a 911 emergency call.
This technology has raised public concern that, in addition to being used for emergency location, the locator service may be used by cellular carriers or by others to track the movements of cell phone users without their consent. There is therefore a need for a system that complies with the FCC mandate for location service while providing maximum privacy protection for cell phone users.
One technology that is commercially used to attempt to protect the privacy of cellular telephone users is the *67 dialing feature offered by Bell South™ and others. This feature allows a cellular user to block caller ID transmission from a cellular handset by dialing *67 before placing a call. If the user dials *67 and then 911, however, caller ID transmission will not be blocked, and personnel at the PSAP will be able to view the caller ID data.
While this technology can be used to prevent the transmission of caller ID data, it does not protect against the collection or transmission of GPS location data. There is therefore a need for a system that can be used to selectively enable and disable the transmission of GPS location data, preserving the transmission of that data during true emergency calls but blocking the accidental or malicious activation of the GPS tracking feature. Other problems exist.